Jefford on Monday: Of Tourists and Toadstools

You may, over the next few weeks, begin to pencil out a holiday plan for 2014. It may involve a vineyard visit or two. If you're hoping to visit leading addresses in Europe's classic regions, write for an appointment well in advance. And prepare, when the reply comes, for disappointment.

In the Americas, South Africa and Australasia, wine tourism is sometimes the main driver of wine-making endeavour. That’s why wine is made in every one of the United States. Tourism keeps the Hunter Valley and Swan Valley in business as wine-producing regions; it fertilises the contemporary winemaking potential of regions like the Mornington Peninsula, Sonoma, Stellenbosch, Constantia and Franschhoek. Eight of South Africa’s 20 best restaurants, astonishingly enough, are found on wine estates.

Why hasn’t Gippsland developed at the same speed as the Yarra, despite its evident viticultural potential and the equidistance of the western end of this vast region to Melbourne? Visitors, probably. The Yarra, with its arterial highways, has some of the most successful cellar-door sales in Australia; Gippsland’s lonely veins are still the kind of place where you can see ‘FARMER SEEKS WIFE’ spelled out in white paint on a pile of black-wrapped bales.

Contrast Europe. Twenty or thirty years ago, it was relatively uncommon for anyone other than wine merchants to visit Bordeaux estates and Burgundy domains; producers were puzzled that consumers would even want to do this, and were sometimes grumpy about facilitating visits. The last two decades have seen an explosion in the global distribution of these wines; new consumers have the money, leisure and desire to visit, explore and learn. As a result, visitor pressure has grown with toadstool velocity. For many producers, indeed, it’s reached crisis levels.

Nowhere is this more true than in Burgundy. The size of many domains makes it impossible to receive all those who might wish to visit -- and the run of recent short harvests, combined with burgeoning global demand, means that producers don’t have enough wine to fill the order books, let alone pour free samples for a daily stream of smiling, earnest strangers. Domains in the northern Rhône, in Piedmont and on small Right Bank properties in Bordeaux face similar problems. Even the capacious First Growths are wondering how they can deal with the swelling crowds.

It’s time, I think, for the Old World to learn from the New. There is still, for example, a reluctance among some European producers to charge for tasting samples, even for visitors who have flown in, eliminating any potential for a direct sale. Welcoming visitors without charge is seen as part of the European wine world’s deep traditions of hospitality (or perhaps as a debt of honour once the wines have achieved colossally high retail prices). That’s wonderful – but unsustainable, at least without declining the majority of visit propositions.

A better idea, surely, is to regard every visitor as a different sort of customer: one that wants to go home with an experience, rather than a bottle. No one minds paying for that – and the more memorable and authentic the experience, the more the visitor will be prepared to pay. We don’t, after all, expect free concerts from leading performers, even though we may already have bought piles of their cds.

Larger producers would be able to mount much better visitor facilities than at present if properly remunerated for doing so. Every tasting sample sold on site, remember, is also a direct sale, cutting out profit-taking intermediaries; visitors are prepared to pay handsomely (as Napa producers know) for well-thought-out food-and-wine tastings or library tastings of rarer older vintages in the company of owner or winemaker.

A solution for smaller domains, meanwhile, would be to join up with a group of confrères and run visits on a rota basis, meaning that everyone would take an occasional turn rather than having to cope with or fend off the continual stream. Another system is to confine visits to a series of ‘open days’ whose sole purpose is to explain and exchange. A central village tasting room or enoteca where every producer’s wines can be tasted and bought is very useful for casual visitors or those without appointments, too.

It isn’t desirable, of course, for fine wines to be exclusively sold via a cellar door, unless the producer is content with a national reputation alone. International reputation, though, means that the pressure on leading European wine estates to receive visitors will continue to sprout. Each needs a strategy. Making the experience work economically doesn’t mean that it has to be contrived or insincere.

Have your say!

PhilipDecember 22 11:30

PERSONALLY I don't know how anyone can visit a winery for free and NOT buy something. Even if you don't like the wine, I think there is an unwritten understanding that you should buy something to compensate for the time and effort the wine establishment takes to offer their hospitality. How anyone can walk out without buying anything is the height of rudeness. Such people make it necessary to charge entrance.

Paul DavisDecember 20 17:11

I agree with Andrew here (as I normally do). Most of my wine-based holidays are short breaks where I couldn't possibly drink up a bottle bought from every producer I want to visit. Paying a fee at the tasting table is far better than the embarrassment of walking away having given nothing in return.

Wander StepsDecember 18 17:14

Douro is giving its first steps in wine tourism. Producers are creating parallel tourism businesses to their core business. The results are in plain sight, with an exponential growth. But as expected there are problems. It’s still hard to maintain tourists for more than a day in the region as there are little support services, and the activities offer is reduced and inconstant. There is still a lack of investment to trains qualified people for this sector.
On the other hand you can wonder if this lack of qualification is bad. Other regions lost their identity when mass tourism was a reality. Anyway the truth is that in the old world there is still a lot to do. But most importantly we must define the path we must take.
Maybe Wander Steps is part of the answer.

andreaDecember 18 08:04

I had been to Bordeaux for twice of past two years,although i am incharge of importing wines from this place,it is difficult to visit the Grand Cru Chateaus without the reservation 2 or 3 months in advance,so I had to book by some angencies,it cost around 45-80Euros for half a day or one day tourism,included 2-4 wineries,tasted some wines.
As these wineries are focused on one label,I usally tasted 2-3 wines with different vintage,that's also nice experience for me,to felt the difference.

MAISON GABRIEL MEFFREDecember 16 12:35

Many Rhône Valley producers have made huge efforts to welcome visitors these past 10 years. Inter Rhône, the official wine representation of the Rhône valley, has developed the "wine roads" leaflets and also a quality label: 1, 2 or 3 feuilles (vine leaves), depending on the number of languages spoken, the opening hours, the events organized, etc... This can be of great help for visitors. And many producers offer visits and tastings for free ! As an example, our Domaine de Longue Toque in Gigondas is "3 leaves" and proposes many "ateliers", visits and wine tastings throughout the year. More information on http://www.vins-rhone.com/fr/route or http://www.gabrielmeffre.com/caveau

Kostas LonisDecember 16 11:46

If I may share a personal experience here mr. Jefford. I spent a week in Bordeaux back in August 2009 and visited a lot of chateaux in all communes. Almost all visits had an entrance fee, from 5-8 euros like Pontet Canet and Figeac (some were free) and only Mouton Rothschild had 17 euros. In the same time, apart from the 1-1.5 hour visits, there was a tasting of the grand vin at the end, where in Smith Haut Lafitte and Pape Clement were both the red and white and in Mouton Rothschild there were 4, with the last being the still-in-the-cask 2008 grand vin.

On the other hand, last January my girlfriend went to Australia to see relatives and booked one of those fixed 1 day wine tours, 4 wineries including Chandon and de Bortoli, the cost was 180 dollars and almost 7 wines tasted at every winery.
I prefer the European version.

But of course it’s not that simple. We have to remember that chateaux in Bordeaux offer 1 wine but it is their best wine and furthermore they only make 2 or 3 altogether. Burgundy has more wines on offer per producer, but as you of course already stated, the quantities are miniscule, especially in the top range.

Accommodation is another matter also. Australian wineries were built with more space than they could handle so they could build whole restaurants where they have the tastings. But who wouldn’t rather take a glass of a 1999 Figeac from a 15th century oak table in a room with a 16th century carpet mounted on the wall? The same principles apply to the rest of France with Champagne, Alsace and the Rhone, to Italy, Germany, Portugal and Spain.

This is just another fundamental difference between Europe and the rest of the world. It is not about right and wrong, we just look things from a different perspective.
Noone will visit Trimbach just to try some of the best Alsacian wines, but to walk through the door of a 15 generation winery.That is what we call in Europe, an experience.

Dom GeorgeDecember 16 11:25

As a wine tourism professional in France, I can say that the days of paid tastings (unless the tasting is part of a global tour package), are probably not just around the corner, as a "dégustation payante" theoretically requires a licence to serve alcohol for money. Also the idea of a paid tasting, conjures up images of minibuses queueing up outside vineyards à la Napa Valley, which although great for the vineyard, turns wines and the wineries which produce them into just another box for the tourist to tick off. Very interesting article though, as ever.

Tatiana LiveseyDecember 16 11:14

Couldn't agree more that the Old World is lagging behind New World in terms of cellar door hospitality. However, there are producers that have spotted an opportunity and are interested to diversify into wine tourism services. That comes at a cost - space, capital not to mention trained and English speaking staff. Italy and Spain are learning fast and we at Winerist have been very impressed by wineries there. In France unfortunately there is still a lot of hostility. We are working hard to teach wineries about wine tourism and social media and in the meantime provide a solution for travellers to find something available to visit in wine regions.

Paul RowbothamDecember 16 10:16

Being one of the aforementioned "small Right Bank properties in Bordeaux" I can relate to all this. It is a difficult formula to get right. It always surprises us how behind the Bordelais are with attracting visitors (although they are catching up, slowly). We welcome visitors with open arms, particularly families, and give them a tour, tasting, spend time, answer questions, etc..and don't charge (unless they don't buy which rarely happens). It's very busy in summer and provides useful income. However - the problem is time. Employ help? That costs and people like to meet the wine maker. Spend all day in the chai waiting for visitors? Fat chance. Vines to look after. We have ideas about expanding the 'experience' around organic farming, picnics, walks...but again need time to implement. I don't have the answer. Until I do, we will continue multi-tasking!

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